March 1, 2017—Countering Counterfeits

In the spring of 2014, the Senate Liberals opened our Caucus doors to Canadians. Through our Open Caucus initiative we are learning, discussing and debating issues of national importance. This effort is hosted by the Senate Liberal Caucus but is intended to be non-partisan. All parliamentarians will be invited, as well as members of the press and the general public.

On March 1st, we invited you to join us in a discussion on issues impacting the intellectual property regime in Canada. Up to $591 billion a year of global imports are counterfeited and pirated goods. Counterfeiting affects all types of goods: footwear, food, pharmaceuticals, automotive parts, and much more. Counterfeiting is an issue which is of national, commercial, and consumer concern. Some of the impacts are related to profits, trade secrets, health and safety, and criminal activities. Canada’s IP regime is considered as weaker to other industrialized countries thereby affecting innovation and competiveness. To address this important topic we invited a panel of witnesses to discuss what steps must be taken to make Canada’s IP regime a world leader.